[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Just one win in 10 Premier League matches for Hughes....

A very bad result for Hughes tonight, losing 3-0 to Spurs. For a team which cost over £200m, one win in 10 Premier League matches frankly isn't good enough.

With the massive financial resources Man City have at their disposal they should be beating teams like Burnley, Hull and Fulham at home and Wigan away - rather than getting draws in those games.

If Man City are beaten in their Carling Cup semi-final with Man United then inevitably there will be greater scrutiny on Hughes's position as manager. I think City need to win either a trophy this season - the Carling Cup or the FA Cup - or to finish in the top four, otherwise Hughes will be under a lot of pressure.

With Jose Mourinho reported to be keen on a move back to England soon, there will no doubt be increasing speculation about Hughes's position if Man City don't start picking up more wins in the Premier League soon.

Tonight's match at White Hart Lane was a huge game for Man City in their fight to finish in the top four and City failed in their task. In the 18 months since Hughes has been at Eastlands, his away record with Man City has been very poor - picking up just two away wins all last season and two away wins so far this season. Four away wins in 18 months from such a massively expensive team isn't good enough.

I don't think Hughes has got the balance right yet and defensively they remain error-prone and sloppy at times, with Joleon Lescott looking very overpriced at £22m.

I suspect that the verdict from His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his repulsive murderous torturing family who enjoy setting fire to people's genitals and beating men with wooden planks with nails attached to it might well be that Mark Hughes could and indeed should be doing better in terms of winning more matches in the Premier League.

Clearly Mark Hughes is a man without principles who would probably jump into bed with Robert Mugabe if it meant him getting a better job. In my view the media should be asking more serious questions about this vile Abu Dhabi family and whether they are appropriate for football ownership in this country.

Link: Vile torture from the Abu Dhabi family

[Ozz]

ALL THIS BIT WAS UNNECESSARY TO ILLUSTRATE SPARKYS NOT A GREAT MANAGER

I suspect that the verdict from His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his repulsive murderous torturing family who enjoy setting fire to people's genitals and beating men with wooden planks with nails attached to it might well be that Mark Hughes could and indeed should be doing better in terms of winning more matches in the Premier League.

As American congressman James McGovern said of a horrific Abu Dhabi torture video which emerged: "I cannot describe the horror and revulsion I felt when witnessing what is on this video. I could not watch it without constantly flinching."

Clearly Mark Hughes is a man without principles who would probably jump into bed with Robert Mugabe if it meant him getting a better job. In my view the media should be asking more serious questions about this vile Abu Dhabi family and whether they are appropriate for football ownership in this country.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

ALL THIS BIT WAS UNNECESSARY TO ILLUSTRATE SPARKYS NOT A GREAT MANAGER

The broad thrust of my post above was football related and relevant to Man City gaining only one win in ten Premier League games. I'm sorry if the other bits upset or offended you, my dear chap, but I also wanted to make the point that in my personal opinion - you don't have to agree with me, that Hughes is a man without principles in terms of him being willing to work for such owners.

Hughes first jumped into bed (metaphorically) with Thaksin Shinawatra - I won't upset you by giving all the various details here of Shinawatra's crimes and misdemeanours - but the point I am trying to make is that Hughes is coming across as being frankly not a great person and not a great manager so far in his 18 months with Man City.

I am judging Hughes by his football results with Man City over the last 18 months and indeed also judging his character. I'm sorry if that irritated you.

I also could have mentioned Hughes's defence of Adebayor's disgusting kick in the head of Van Persie. (The Dutchman certainly isn't an angel but two wrongs don't make a right.)

For me that unseemly episode with Adebayor and Hughes's refusal to accept that his striker did anything wrong on the pitch raised questions once again about Hughes's character.

[allanncd]

Available coaches such as Hiidinck and Mourinho must be looking very tempting to the sheikhs. They have to decide whether to write-off any chance of making the Champions League this season or ditch Hughes in an attempt to pull it round. I would say Hughes is certain not to be manager by June 2010.

[RovertheHill]

Just one win in 10 Premier League matches for Hughes....

Tonight's match at White Hart Lane was a huge game for Man City in their fight to finish in the top four and City failed in their task. In the 18 months since Hughes has been at Eastlands, his away record with Man City has been very poor - picking up just two away wins all last season and two away wins so far this season. Four away wins in 18 months from such a massively expensive team isn't good enough.

That made me feel a whole lot better about our away record.

[Mattyblue]

The broad thrust of my post above was football related and relevant to Man City gaining only one win in ten Premier League games. I'm sorry if the other bits upset or offended you, my dear chap, but I also wanted to make the point that in my personal opinion - you don't have to agree with me, that Hughes is a man without principles in terms of him being willing to work for such owners.

Hughes first jumped into bed (metaphorically) with Thaksin Shinawatra - I won't upset you by giving all the various details here of Shinawatra's crimes and misdemeanours - but the point I am trying to make is that Hughes is coming across as being not a great person and not a great manager so far in his 18 months with Man City.

I am judging Hughes by his football results with Man City over the last 18 months and indeed also judging his character. I'm sorry if that upset you.

AESF NEVER tone it down!!

Saint Mark seems to have a mythical status with a lot of our fans and I will always appreciate the superb job he did at the club but he has become increasingly arrogant over the last 12 months, his constant unsettling of players a la Redknapp being particular grating.

[Silencio]

Hughes is a good manager and good managers can take clubs from the bottom of the league to the top 6. Plenty of managers have done this. He was also a very forward thinking manager when he first came to Rovers. I think people caught up with him on this front whilst he was our manager and that along with a lack of funding is what lead to the last season being quite poor. Tactically, he was always a bit suspect and was slow and ineffective when making substitutions. That is why, at this point, he can't be considered a great manager in my opinion.

Surprisingly, he has bought poorly at City and I imagine he will be gone at the end of the season, he will deserve it too if they carry on as they are doing.

[thenodrog]

Available coaches such as Hiidinck and Mourinho must be looking very tempting to the sheikhs. They have to decide whether to write-off any chance of making the Champions League this season or ditch Hughes in an attempt to pull it round. I would say Hughes is certain not to be manager by June 2010.

Mourhino's losing the plot at Inter isn't he?

Hughes is a good manager (but he performed better with less money... see my sig) without a doubt but is again the victim of mgment wanting instant success even though players contracts can be up to 4 years long. Interesting but it took the old RFW 5 years to do anything of significance with MU and he's never looked back since. By todays criteria he'd have been potted in quick time and MU would have been just another top 8 team through the 90's and since.

[gumboots]

Hughes is a good manager and good managers can take clubs from the bottom of the league to the top 6. Plenty of managers have done this. He was also a very forward thinking manager when he first came to Rovers. I think people caught up with him on this front whilst he was our manager and that along with a lack of funding is what lead to the last season being quite poor. Tactically, he was always a bit suspect and was slow and ineffective when making substitutions. That is why, at this point, he can't be considered a great manager in my opinion.

Surprisingly, he has bought poorly at City and I imagine he will be gone at the end of the season, he will deserve it too if they carry on as they are doing.

There's also the question of how many signings are those that Hughes would have chosen if the pressure hadn't been on to make marquee signings. He'd probably have preferred to go by the build it up steadily route and chose a decent blend of players with an emphasis on that dodgy defence and so on but he hasn't been allowed to do that because of the presuure to get up there instantly. Instead he's left with a group of players who can all play but not a team who will dig deep for one another when it's not going well for them.

[Jackson]

ALL THIS BIT WAS UNNECESSARY TO ILLUSTRATE SPARKYS NOT A GREAT MANAGER

This scum own the company Sparky works for. He takes money from them. I think it is necessary.

[philipl]

The Man City bumble machine is at work again.

Hiddink's agent has spoken in detail about the talks with Gary Cook.

That 3-0 walloping at Spuds was very very bad for Sparky.

[Sparky Marky]

yeah, but that Gary Cook seems like a right clown doesn't he....I'd imagine that Hiddink was on the hot-phone to Abramovich cos he's firmly in the russian camp....Imagine putting your current manager in a position like that...I'd have thought he'd be in for Mourinho...

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

The Man City bumble machine is at work again.

Hiddink's agent has spoken in detail about the talks with Gary Cook.

Link to this story below:

Clock ticks for Hughes after Hiddink's agent reveals approach

With Gareth Barry openly admitting that the City players were "at each other's throats" in the dressing room after the Spurs game, with Robinho storming off down the tunnel in a girly strop after being substituted and Hiddink's agent now revealing an approach from the bungling Garry Cook, it doesn't appear to be a happy contented ship at Eastlands at the moment.

There have also been reports that Hughes steamed into Adebayor and Toure after the Spurs game following disappointing performances from the former Arsenal players.

Link: Punters bet heavily on Hughes to depart City.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Sounds like Hughes has lost the dressing room:

Manchester City stars in dressing room bust-up after defeat to Tottenham

[T4E]

I suspect that the verdict from His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his repulsive murderous torturing family who enjoy setting fire to people's genitals and beating men with wooden planks with nails attached to it might well be that Mark Hughes could and indeed should be doing better in terms of winning more matches in the Premier League.

Clearly Mark Hughes is a man without principles who would probably jump into bed with Robert Mugabe if it meant him getting a better job. In my view the media should be asking more serious questions about this vile Abu Dhabi family and whether they are appropriate for football ownership in this country.

Link: Vile torture from the Abu Dhabi family

Hughes wasn't appointed by the Arabs - what did you expect him to do, resign in protest at their takeover?

If you're going to link it to Hughes you need to be having a pop at that Thai bloke.

[Silencio]

The Man City bumble machine is at work again.

Hiddink's agent has spoken in detail about the talks with Gary Cook.

That 3-0 walloping at Spuds was very very bad for Sparky.

I thought Hughes was great for us but he isn't doing the business there. Do you still think he is doing well there Philip?

I read an article that summed it up well today, he has created a "no excuses" culture at City, as he did at Rovers but he must also be running out of excuses now. He has made a raft of very poor signings IMO.

I don't rate any Bridge, Lescott or Toure and I think Adebayor, RSC, Tevez, Barry and Robinho are all either overrated, crocked or have attitude problems...

[ABBEY]

why would he resign? hes in a win win situation....win games get paid ,get sacked get loadsa wonga.

[Hughesy]

why would he resign? hes in a win win situation....win games get paid ,get sacked get loadsa wonga.

Spot on......For a manager that did so well on a limited budget, he has done very poor with a big budget. They looked like a decent team on paper but it hasnt worked that way.

Hughes needs to get rid of that girl Robinho if he wants to do anything there!

[philipl]

City have to go on a prolonged run of wins starting tomorrow for Hughes to survive this one.

They were at least not losing during that long run of draws but the stuffing by Spurs has detatched them from the CL place that everyone knows is the basic requirement for this season.

City have Spurs syndrome- players who have looked fantastic elsewhere have proven to be duds after big money moves. You'd have to say that given the chance to spend £250m in transfer fees all over again, wages no object; very few of the current City players would be bought again. Bellamy, Given would be, anybody else?

[Bobby G]

On the verge of the sack regardless of the Sunderland game according to The Guardian.

His time there would be a failure in reality but I doubt that it will be looked upon as one.

With that much spending, whilst I dont automatically expect them to win the title, I wouldve thought theyd be much higher with more points especially considering the open race this season.

I guess we werent big enough for him and they were too big.

PS. Good luck Roque.

[vyeo]

On the verge of the sack regardless of the Sunderland game according to The Guardian.

His time there would be a failure in reality but I doubt that it will be looked upon as one.

With that much spending, whilst I dont automatically expect them to win the title, I wouldve thought theyd be much higher with more points especially considering the open race this season.

I guess we werent big enough for him and they were too big.

PS. Good luck Roque.

I would still have both of them back...

[thenodrog]

On the verge of the sack regardless of the Sunderland game according to The Guardian.

Thats ok cos my mate has convinced himself that Hughes would come in for Samba this window if he is still at Citeh.

I guess the impending transfer window will prove Hughes's nemesis if anything. Any new man coming in will want to bring in a few of his own players, whilst the owners will not want to give Hughes money to spend on players that might not figure. I guess if Hiddink is still in Moscow then Hughes best option is to hire a hit man and have him taken off the list of alternatives.

No good luck to RSC though, he's history so he can shove any best wishes where the sun don't shine. He did OK and made us a lot of money and we did OK for him but he simply doesn't matter to us anymore. Kerching. Next.

[Fylde Coast Fan]

Thats ok cos my mate has convinced himself that Hughes would come in for Samba this window if he is still at Citeh.

No chance of this. Hughes would be committing career suicide if he went for Samba and Bentley in this window - turning to the comfort blanket of his old Rovers players.

It is pretty astonishing though, as the Guardian pointed out, that a man who signed Chris Samba for £400k paid £24M for Joleon Lescott.

[Eddie]

City have to go on a prolonged run of wins starting tomorrow for Hughes to survive this one.

They were at least not losing during that long run of draws but the stuffing by Spurs has detatched them from the CL place that everyone knows is the basic requirement for this season.

City have Spurs syndrome- players who have looked fantastic elsewhere have proven to be duds after big money moves. You'd have to say that given the chance to spend £250m in transfer fees all over again, wages no object; very few of the current City players would be bought again. Bellamy, Given would be, anybody else?

That not losing stuff is nonsense, good spin by them though. They drew 8 in a row...that's 8 points in 8 games. They could have won 3 and lost 5, which would have impressed no one, and picked up more points.

He just hasn't done it there.

[47er]

He was a great manager for us which is all I care about. He hasn't had the freedom to do his job at City and players have been signed he didn't want. I would take him back in an instant along with Bentley and Bellamy.Not sicknote Roque though.